Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Two More Pornography Companies for Violating Texas Age Verification Law
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Multi Media, LLC, and Hammy Media, major pornography companies that operate sites such as “Chaturbate” and “xHamster,” for violating HB 1181, a Texas law that requires reasonable age verification measures to protect minors from being exposed to harmful obscene material.
Instead of abiding by Texas law requiring purveyors of obscene material to institute age verification systems, the companies present minors who access their websites with pornographic content and they provide no meaningful screening. Attorney General Paxton is seeking an injunction against the companies to require appropriate age verification safeguards. The companies face potentially millions of dollars in civil penalties for failing to abide by the law.
In November 2023, Attorney General Paxton won a major victory allowing Texas to enforce HB 1181 after pornography companies sued to block the law. Earlier this month, he won a ruling that Texas’s age verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment—as alleged by the pornography industry.
Additionally, in February 2024, Texas sued Aylo Global Entertainment, a company that runs several of the largest pornography websites including Pornhub, for violating HB 1181. Rather than institute the required measures, however, Pornhub opted to shut down its site entirely in Texas.
Attorney General Paxton noted, “PornHub has now disabled its website in Texas. Sites like PornHub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children. In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don’t want to comply, they should leave Texas.”
Companies violating the age verification requirements required by HB 1181 will be subject to fines of up to $10,000 per day, an additional $10,000 per day if the corporation illegally retains identifying information, and $250,000 if a child is exposed to pornographic content due to not properly verifying a user’s age.
“I will continue to aggressively enforce HB 1181. All pornography companies lacking proper age verification safeguards on their sites should consider themselves on notice, because they’re violating Texas law,” Attorney General Paxton said.
Read the complaint against Multi Media LLC here, and the complaint against Hammy Media here.
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